The Political Transition In Myanmar And The Rohingya Crisis

The Rohingyas are a cross-border Muslim group living in the northern Rakhine state of Myanmar,which borders Bangladesh.Influenced by the history of British colonial rule,Rakhine ethnic group and domestic Buddhists hated the Rohingya.The military government also regards Rohingya as a “cancer” of secession,does not recognize its citizenship,and adopts a policy of exclusion and expulsion against it.The Rohingya issue arises from this.In the early 21 st century,under the leadership of the junta,Myanmar began a political transition to a “disciplined,prosperous and democratic country”,and in 2011,a transition of power between the junta and a democratically elected government took place.In the context of political transformation and national reconciliation,the Rohingya issue has not been alleviated,but gradually escalated.In 2012,Rakhine state was the first to see a large-scale anti-Rohingya movement.Incited by the Buddhist nationalist movement,the anti-Rohingya movement in Rakhine state escalated into nationwide anti-Muslim violence.During the National League for Democracy(NLD)government,the Rohingya crisis escalated again.In August 2017,national security forces launched “clearance operations” in response to a Rohingya militant group in northern Rakhine state,which led to nearly 700,000 Muslims refugee exoduses.The incident has drawn international attention,with the UN human rights commissioner calling it a “textbook case of ethnic cleansing”.By tracking and analyzing the process of escalation of the Rohingya crisis after political transition,the basic conclusion of the thesis is that both extreme Rakhine parties,Buddhism monks worried the expansion Rohingyas rights would damage their interests against the background of political transition,therefore,they took advantage of inciting nationalist anti-Muslim sentiment,in order to maintain its traditional position and interests;When anti-Rohingya(Muslim)sentiments becoming the mainstream in the society,both the Union Solidarity and Development Party(USDP)and NLD catered to the nationalist agenda of “anti-Rohingya(Muslim)” so as to win the support of the majority of the Buddhist voters and gain the ruling status,which is also the root cause of the escalation of the Rohingya crisis.